In recent years, removable data storage technology has advanced dramatically with a number of technological breakthroughs. These breakthroughs include increased data storage and exponential data transfer speeds; increased device portability through a substantial reduction in physical device size; increased device availability by the development of mass-appeal low-cost products; and simplified connectivity methods to computer systems. Removable mass storage devices, such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drives, memory sticks, Secure Digital (SD) memory cards, compact flash cards, external hard-drives, or CD/DVD players, etc., are currently popular media for data storage and portability. A removable mass storage device may allow a person to store and carry a large quantity of data, to read or view, and transfer data to and/or from another electronic device. For example, a company's technical support engineer collected a few sets of instrument measurement data at a customer's site for trouble shooting purpose. The data was collected on a computer of the customer's office. The engineer carried the data back his own laboratory by copying the data from the customer's computer to a USB flash drive. The data was downloaded to the engineer's computer from the USB flash drive and the engineer could analyze the data collected at customer site on his/her computer.
Another example is that a patient collects blood pressure data at home several times a day based on his/her doctor's instruction, and the blood pressure data is stored on a Secure Digital (SD) memory card. The doctor at a hospital can view the patient's blood pressure trend by plugging the SD card to a hospital's computer when the patient visits the doctor with the SD card with him. The physical size of a USB flash drive or an SD card is relatively small and is very convenient for carrying data.
Security concerns for transferring data between a removable mass storage device and an electronic device may be desired. A significant issue is that computer virus is widely spread through these removable mass storage devices. Without any virus protection device, a removable mass storage device or other electronic devices may be easily to be infected with virus while the removable mass storage device is connected with another electronic device for data transfer. The high portability of the removable mass storage devices may make virus spread even faster.
Currently many anti-virus programs are widely available on the market and on the Internet. However, an anti-virus program may not detect all types of virus. Furthermore, some electronic devices, especially many personal computers, may not have anti-virus programs installed. Consequently, this may increase probability for a mass storage device or other electronic devices to be infected by virus when a mass storage device is connected with another electronic device without anti-virus protection or data filtering for data transfer.
In certain working environments, such as a public library, a hospital, or a government office, a computer user might not have the authorization to install anti-virus software on a computer that he or she is using. When the computer user copies files from a computer to a removable mass storage device, he or she may not be aware whether a virus is also copied to the removable mass storage device. On the other hand, when the user copies files from a removable mass storage device to a computer, he or she may not guaranty that no virus be copied to the computer.
Other security concerns may include user authorization, or data protection, etc. for data transfer between a removable mass storage device and another electronic device. However, these concerns have not been addressed conventionally.
Moreover, various level of control for the data transfer may be desired. A user of a removable mass storage device may want to have control of types of data that can be transferred between the removable mass storage device and a computer; or limit the directions of data transfer, such as data is only allowed to be transferred from a removable mass storage device to a computer, etc. For instance, a school teacher wants to distribute a school calendar in an Excel format to his/her students. The teacher may ask the students to copy the calendar from a school's computer to the students' personal USB flash drives. The teacher may want to have some control for the data transfer, i.e., copy of calendar. The teacher may restrict that the only file that can be copied is the calendar in Excel format, and data transfer may be allowed only from the computer to a USB flash drive. This control may help prevent students from copying a wrong file, prevent a USB flash drive from being infected by virus, and prevent virus or unwanted files from being copied from students' USB flash drives to the school's computer. The teacher may further enforce some security check by requesting the students to enter a password before copying the calendar to their USB flash drives, or restrict certain windows for allowing the students to copy files from the computer to a USB flash drive.
Therefore, there is a need of a device working as a firewall and the like for a removable mass storage device that may provide control and secure data transfer between the removable mass storage device and another electronic device.